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So who has got "control" of the keys? - have the Police passed them on to the Land-owners where the cars are parked? and left them in control of the situation. - Strange!!
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Are they in use by fly-by-night cab drivers? :-)
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It's a Park and Hide operation.
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Used to work for a large Japanese corporate who had a deal with valet parking at LHR.
I never used it, much prefer to park my car in long term parking, take the keys and get back to the car knowing that it hasn't been taken home or joy ridden by an oik, tyres kerbed, thrashed when cold, constantly shunted around a compound etc etc.
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We live two hours from Manchester Airport, but when we used to go abroad we found it almost as cheap to leave the car at home and arrange a price with a local taxi firm to take us and pick us up. Last time we went (2010) it cost us £180, slightly more expensive than an Airport parking firm, but if we added £30 fuel it was about the same.
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Something of an option here for us these days. Less than an hour away now.
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>>
>> I never used it, much prefer to park my car in long term parking, take
>> the keys and get back to the car knowing that it hasn't been taken home
>> or joy ridden by an oik, tyres kerbed, thrashed when cold, constantly shunted around a
>> compound etc etc.
>>
Conversely I always use valet parking (the airport operated one) and LHR and LGW and have never had an issue... I used it pretty much weekly in 2013/14, and monthly since then. Both the Audi and BMW let me track the location of the car, if I can be bothered. They never move! I'm sure, if they were minded, there's much more expensive and quicker cars dropped off there that they could join about in. I'm generally more concerned about people scraping the car in the short or long stay car parks!
Edited to add that the real reason I use valet parking is time. I can drop the car off at departures, and pick it up at the same place. At LGW it's never more that a 5 minute walk from dropping the car off to being airside. On the return longer, because it's such a sprawling airport. But the cars there when I walk out of the airport. LHR takes a little longer, but the principle is the same.
Last edited by: PeterS on Wed 19 Jul 17 at 14:09
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>> if they were minded, there's much more expensive and quicker cars dropped off there that they could join about in. >>
It's more about not knowing if they have kerbed it on the way in or out of the car park and then having a flat, or worse a blowout, on the m/way after an 8 hour flight.
>> I'm generally more concerned about people scraping the car in the short or long stay car parks!>>
At LHR it's always possible to find an end space etc with little chance of scrapes and dings though who knows how the valet guys park it and how careful they are.
Allowing for a 150 min drive to LHR the difference from long stay versus valet makes little difference to the home to plane timing.
It's just so reassuring that the car is exactly as I left it.
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We have a nearby free park and ride with a free (for pensioners) bus service to Edinburgh airport every 20 minutes 24/7 and Glasgow airport every 20 or 30 minutes 24/7 depending on the time of day. Edinburgh is best for Europe and Glasgow for the USA and Dubai with daily long haul flights. These services are well used.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 19 Jul 17 at 17:46
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>> It's just so reassuring that the car is exactly as I left it.
>>
I worked with a guy who thought the same about his pens and pencils. Drove him mad if we moved them. :-)
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If you have left your car/keys with a company that subsequently goes bust - and your car has 'disappeared' - I wonder how benign your insurance company would be when dealing with your claim?
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Good question. They reasonably expect and sometimes explicitly say that you must keep control of your keys. Clearly that can't mean that you never hand them over e.g. for parking or just servicing, but they might argue that under those circumstances the entity in control of the car is responsible. Not much help if they aren't insured and go bust.
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"Good question."
At this point, maybe we should turn to the CA. What do you think, Brompt?
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>> What do you think, Brompt?
Hmmm!!
Wouldn't be an easy inquiry.
Busy now will reply later.
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>> At this point, maybe we should turn to the CA. What do you think, Brompt?
First of all nothing I say on here is CA advice.
General approach:
Would want to see client face to face and do a full exploration of paperwork etc to understand where they've got to.
Insurer probably has some wiggle room around (a) whether theft, as defined in law, has taken place and (b) whether insured had, by handing over keys and/or using a service that was not on airport's approved list member of BPA or similar, failed to take reasonable care. Possibly other T&C related issues too.
There is information on our public website about insurance disputes (tinyurl.com/ydyyga9d) and more in adviser only content. Final arbiter is going to be Financial Services Ombudsman. A look at his website and decided cases could provide some arguments to put to a reluctant insurer. Other websites might also be useful - the interweb has revolutionised advice giving.
We don't 'act' for people or deal with this sort of stuff as casework; we help people find solutions to their problems. Depending on client's capability we could though assist in correspondence or phone calls with insurer and/or Ombudsman. Might also, with client's consent, speak to Police and establish what they might be able to do; marker on DVLA/Police database for example.
Any plan of action I develop would be discussed with Session Supervisor before moving forward.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 20 Jul 17 at 13:58
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Outside of servicing and repairs, I would never hand my car keys to someone I didn't know.
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Nor me, but I suspect many are company lease cars which involve little more than a shrug of the shoulders.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 21 Jul 17 at 07:53
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>> Nor me, but I suspect many are company lease cars which involve little more than
>> a shrug of the shoulders.
>>
It *is* only a car at the end of the day, and I take the view that if I've driven to the airport it's because that was the most convenient mode of transport. I'm not going faff around with airport shuttles and long term parking since that adds at least 25% to the journey time, which rather defeats the point. And valet parking is generally cheaper than short-stay, even for 48 hour trips, IME :)
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...handing control to someone in the motor trade, parking company, etc. is specifically covered in my insurance - though there might be an interesting debate as to whether it is still in their control if they've gone bust, or indeed, if such company left the keys in the car!
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>> Outside of servicing and repairs, I would never hand my car keys to someone I
>> didn't know.
>>
Totally!
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Cars missing from Gatwick holiday car parking co - devonite
